Op-ed: When Alan Duncan MP decided that all people who criticise PM David Cameron over his links to the panama papers are low-achievers who hate the rich he showed his true self; he appeared as a smug-faced snob looking down on the majority of people living in the UK.

He may have intended to draw some of the heat away from David Cameron but there is enough heat for the pair of them.

Saying those who call for accountability and transparency in government employ the politics of envy is way off the mark.

It is more about reducing the politics of poverty and accepting some enjoy a privileged start in life.

A pocket family history

Edith was born in 1888. In 1900 at the ripe old age of 12 she was removed from school so that she could become the family's substitute mother. When her mother died Edith's education ceased.

She cared for three siblings and her father. He was a father who always worked but was inclined to spend the paltry week's wages in the pub before he arrived home unless Edith could stop him. This meant going into the pub and pestering him to hand over some money. She faced ridicule from the other men drinking their sorrows away but if she did not the family would not eat.

In 1917 her brother's wife died and she and her sister, still unmarried, began to care for their young nephew, my father.

He was aged just three when his mum died and his Dad a Merchant Navy Third Officer had no option but to leave him with his aunts.

The aunts never married and lived into old age, one reaching the age of 88 the other 84. One worked until age 68 but the work was menial; she was a library cleaner.

Edith was tough as old boots though; she had to be.

When she had to have her teeth extracted there was no anaesthetic as she could not afford the pre NHS price.

These two aunts brought Dad up as best as they could but it was far from perfect.

Dad went on to serve more than seven years in the infantry in places like Burma and India during the Second World War.

His father was still working for the Merchant Navy but aged 51 he was lost at sea, presumed dead, when his vessel was sunk off Egypt by a German U boat in 1941.

My father left the military years behind in the late 1940s although not completely.

His childhood experiences added to his tough war years left him mentally scarred.

He always worked but at times mental health issues would overwhelm him and he would be hospitalised. He was a good worker though and he always returned to the same job.

When I was 14 he tried to commit suicide. That period of time is still too painful to recall.

Both I and my brother were pretty bright at school but both of us were unsettled by events on the home front.

I stayed on at my comprehensive school having sailed through my GCEs but when I was not long past 17 Dad became ill and died within months.

He was aged 55. Three years later Mum suffered a life changing brain haemorrhage and another three years on she died aged 58.

He was by Sir Alan Duncan Smith's standards a low achiever.

I guess so was my great aunt and many of my family.

The same will go for me.

It is funny looking back on a limited pocket-family history now aged 64.

The conclusion is that decent people do the best they can with the hand they are dealt in life.

It is not a level playing-field.

The death of a parent when young is difficult whether you have money or not.

But when there is no family wealth, property or support network to guide you through it is a make or break time.

Who knows what potential Edith had?

But as a god-fearing law-abiding citizen she did what she thought was right and proper.

At times of course she was left with no choice.

Low-achievers up and down the country will have similar tales to tell.

The likes of Sir Alan Duncan haven't a clue; that also goes for PM David Cameron, Chancellor George Osborne, the Royal Family and others.

But it does not necessarily apply to all people with money although by and large it does apply to the Tory party.

What they will never understand is that we lefties shout out for others even when we are not affected.

Sometimes that is because we have a history to tell other times simply because we care.

1888 - 2016 is a long time and much has changed but in some ways nothing has changed.

For now at least the elite have things stacked in their favour.

We no longer tug our forelocks though and hope for our reward in heaven.

l never seen or of so much ignorance then in the last few years. Eaton, Cambridge and Oxford supposed to be high classed educational schools but they definitely failed that lot. To call somebody low achievers only because they were not born with a silver spoon and got the connection through Eton, Cambridge and Oxford Universities shows an unbelievable low mannered character.
They would have got better manners in any council school.
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Reply

Eileen

12/4/2016 09:39:03 pm

Well said my friend. They open their mouths and show how despicable they are.

Reply

Grace

12/4/2016 10:42:04 pm

So well said!

Thank for your dignified, heartfelt and very touching response, to a man who has such an inflated sense of entitlement that he cannot even see how pompous, ignorant and stupid he appears to others.

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